Hong Kong safety main criticises WSJ feeling piece on ‘Subversive’ art

HONG KONG, Could 10 (Reuters) – Hong Kong’s Stability Main Chris Tang criticised an view piece in the Wall Avenue Journal (WSJ) on a seizure by authorities of a statue commemorating Beijing’s Tiananmen Square crackdown on democracy protesters in 1989.

Tang said in a letter to the newspaper that the WSJ view piece, titled “Subversive Artwork is a crime in Hong Kong”, contained “groundless remarks” that mislead viewers, in accordance to a duplicate posted on the internet by the authorities on Wednesday.

The WSJ did not instantly reply to requests for comment.

The Journal mentioned in its belief piece that the seizure by Hong Kong Police’s National Protection Department of the “Pillar of Disgrace” statue was quietly executed and performed without the need of because of course of action.

Tang said this was untrue and that officers took motion with a court docket warrant on Friday and issued a press release on the procedure.

“That the belief piece introduced the exhibit of the prison investigation as an ‘artwork’ and the scenario as a person regarding mere ‘dissent’ is completely misleading,” Tang claimed.

Hong Kong law enforcement organizations are “obligation-certain” to convey justice to people today and entities performing in violation of Hong Kong legislation, such as the Nationwide Protection Law, Tang said.

Beijing imposed the safety legislation on Hong Kong in 2020, a move that Western governments have criticised as a resource to crush dissent.

Chinese and Hong Kong authorities say the regulation, which punishes subversion, collusion with foreign forces and terrorism with up to daily life in jail, has introduced steadiness to the metropolis right after the 2019 protests.

The Pillar of Disgrace, developed by Danish sculptor Jens Galschiot, is an 8 metre (26 feet) tall statue depicting dozens of torn and twisted bodies that commemorates protesters killed in the crackdown in and around Tiananmen Sq. in 1989.

The two-tonne copper Pillar of Disgrace was to start with exhibited at a Tiananmen Sq. commemoration in Hong Kong in 1997, the identical calendar year Britain handed the metropolis back again to China.

In 2021, the College of Hong Kong dismantled and eradicated the statue “based mostly on external lawful guidance and possibility evaluation for the ideal curiosity of the college”. It has because been held in a cargo container on college-owned land.

The seizure will come weeks ahead of the June 4 anniversary of the Tiananmen Sq. crackdown.

Hong Kong had customarily held the greatest annual vigils in the world to commemorate the crackdown but vigils have been barred by police from taking spot because 2020 because of to coronavirus restrictions.

Reporting by Farah Learn and Jessie Pang Modifying by Michael Perry

Our Specifications: The Thomson Reuters Trust Rules.